Life. Interrupted.

If you are reading this, and have read anything else published by me, you might notice that there has been a bit of a lag between my last public wordsmithing and this one. A 2-year hiatus.

That’s a long time. Over time, I might be able to share some of the fruits and some of the sorrow of this past season, but for now, I would like to share this. I missed writing for you. I missed imagining your smile, or tears, nods of agreement, or head shaking at my thoughts. The words have kept rumbling around in my head for these two years. I just couldn’t bring myself to give them out.

In these two years, we have moved 3 times, settled in a new town, said good-bye to some dear friends, and watched our kids sprout up from little boys to young men. It seemed to me for a great deal of this adventure that our “real life” was simply interrupted. I made it my mission for many months to work diligently to put our “real life” back in place. To gather up the pieces that were lost or broken and bind them together with whatever glue I could muster. Sometimes love. Sometimes faith. But it seems that no matter my efforts or how tirelessly I toiled, the pieces kept falling down around me again. Sometimes anger. Sometimes hopelessness.

Until recently. I am clearly a bit more obtuse than the average bear because it has taken me these many months to realize… There is no going back. There is no rebuilding my version of life. Because the reality is, life is about change. Life is about learning and growth, which never come in a vacuum void of challenge or difficulty. It is time to embrace the journey. It is time to lay aside MY impression of the destination and at last surrender to the ebb and flow of comfort and transition. I have made it my prayer to be able to say, like Paul did, that “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstance.”